Romans 9:14-16 - God's Sovereign Mercy

Romans 9:14-16 -14 What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.

Message: God's Sovereign Mercy

Time: Romulus founded ancient Rome about 753 BC. By 600 BC it had become a wealthy, flourishing city with a monarch. Around 500 BC, the monarch was overthrown. A republic resulted and after war, Rome became the only great power in the Mediterranean, succeeding the empire of Alexander the Great. Before and after the birth of Christ, Rome's dominion continued to expand to about two thirds the size of the continental US. At the time Paul wrote, Rome had a population of about 1,000,000. Most were slaves. It was a vast empire, but had many religions present. It is unknown how the church started in Rome, but Gentiles and Jews both were involved. Paul was writing to address a problem, but he wanted to be there and perhaps, make Rome his base for his missionary journey's

What the Lord is Saying:

Romans 9 begins with the question of can Jesus really be the Messiah when God's chosen people have rejected Him? Yet, Paul shows through two examples, Isaac and Ishmael, then Jacob and Esau, that God is the one that chooses. And his choice is not based upon man's works. God chooses based upon His good pleasure.

Verse 14 follows up then with a natural question. God does not treat people in an unfair manner, does he? Or is God unfair? And verse 15 and 16 further clarify and state that God does what He does based upon God being God. God's choice isn't based upon the performance of man.

I think these verse are so clear in that statement. And yet it is important I think to note what these verses are not saying. They are not focusing on man, but only on what man is not doing. All the focus is on God. And I think it is important that we still have a Bible that tells us to pray and share the good news and disciple and train for Godliness and obey commandments.

And I think this is very hard for many people to wrap their brains around. This verse assaults our pride. It makes us think that we are not of value, yet we are. It makes us think our actions are not needed, but they are.

I think the problem many people have with God is they define him based upon their own thinking and not on the Word of God. If we would just hold onto these truths and let them be our guide, I think life would be defined so much differently. I'm not saying that we wouldn't still have questions. There will still be mysteries and uncertainties, but we can always rest on God and His truth and believe and trust Him.

The problem many people have is rather than defining life by what God has done, they define life from what man has done and when they do that, they get angry and walk away. When a loved one dies a death at a young age, when someone kills another human being, when a person suffers tremendously without dying, when one person has much and another has little, in all these things people look and stare and assume God can't be real. They watch seemingly good lives lived and then assume good outcomes must result. It is difficult. No doubt. It is hard to know people, to learn from them, to spend time with them and then to naturally wonder of their eternal state. We do want so badly to remain with people. We don't want to believe that there is a hell. We don't want to believe there are tough outcomes for people. 

Promise: If grace is owed, it is not grace. God chooses. Grace is free. God is merciful and compassionate.